Family Ties
by IsobelFrances
Summary: Blood's thicker than water, or so the saying goes. But what about when then blood is being separated by water, what happens then? Most people are given their families on a silver platter, me; well I'm going to have to find mine, and then I'm going to fight for it. My name is Alexandria and I'm about to meet my father, but just remember "Curiosity killed the cat".


**Disclaimer for entire story: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the show NCIS, which is trademarked by CBS. I do not claim any ownership over anything affiliated with the show and all rights go to their respected owners. This story is for entertainment purposes only and is not part of the official story line. I do not own the image used in the cover photo, and if the owner wishes for the image to not be use I will oblige and remove it and it is only being used as a visual aid for this story. I am to make this story as original as possible, so therefore I ask you to refrain from copying.**

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**Now that I've to the disclaimer out of the way I'd like to thank you for giving my story a chance, whether you have been lead here from the original version of this story or you are an entirely new reader. If you are a reader from my previous story "DiNozzo's daughter" I would like to remind you that the plot line will differentiate from the original so therefore the other story will most likely be irrelevant to this one. **** I'm also going to warn you that the character will most likely be a bit OC, this is mainly because I do believe that becoming a parent or having a parental role over someone changes you and I hope that it's reflected in this piece. ****So anyway thank you for coming here, and I hope you enjoy the story.  
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**Chapter One:**

I glance at the screen showing my flight information and I can't help curse technology, as it tells me that my boarding time is 8 o'clock, that my destination is Washington DC, and that my flight number is 8343. Meaning I only have two hours left. I turn back to my Mum, we know that it is time for goodbyes, but neither of us wants to start; we stand there awkwardly as we sum up the courage to speak. My mouth goes dry as I think of words, but none of them truly express my feelings. Mum starts to speak, her voice is all croaky from holding in tears.

"Now you call us when you get there sweetheart, I don't care if you call us at midnight, just call okay." She manages to say.

"I will Mum, I promise." I reply in a whisper "I love you so much Mum."

"I will always love you more, sweetheart, just remember that." Mum says with teary eyes.

"Impossible." I whisper knowing she can hear me. I take a deep breath and lunge into deep longing hug, but then it's over and I'm left feeling cold; knowing that I've got to walk away. I quickly glance back, and when my eyes clasp on to my mother I internally curse myself, knowing that I should have kept walking. Tears sting in my eyes as I see her standing alone on the marble floor but I refuse to let them fall; even at the sight of her shining eyes. As I try to force myself from running back into her arms, my eyes drift to the glass wall behind her; the warm summer sun boldly shining in;I see the bright flowers and the glossy trees and I know that this is goodbye.

I walk swiftly to the Security Check and wait in the painfully long queue with tears overflowing my eyes. A man operating one of the metal detectors asks me if I am alright. I simply utter;

"Family"

The man nods as if he completely understands, but he doesn't. I am being flown away to live with my dad, who I don't know, to live a new life which I don't want, and I've just had to leave my Mum standing there crying because I'm not strong enough to reassure her that everything is going to be alright, sure he must completely and utterly understand what I'm going through. The man – who I may or may not have dubbed as Beardy in my attempt to cheer myself up - quickly checks my belongings to make sure there are no sharp objects or anything, then hands my rucksack back to me and tells me that I can now go through to the shopping area with a small smile. So I numbly do as I am told and walk towards the shopping area, and to my surprise I can smell the sweet scent of freshly baked cakes and the strong sent of coffee, man I want coffee, I walk around for awhile browsing in the shops, never buying anything because, I've stupidly already converted all of my money into dollars and then before I know it it's time to go to the boarding gate. I robotic-ally follow the Tannoy's instructions, but as I reach the gate I am suddenly filled with the sense of dread and excitement, the combination of the emotions is unsettling to say the least, causing my stomach to clench and I begin to wonder if I will be able to keep my breakfast down. A woman in a neat blue dress and thick make up asks me for my boarding pass and to check my Passport. I pass them to her and she checks them both, tears the end of my boarding pass and returns them to me, just like they do in the films only this time it's real.

Butterflies start world war three in my stomach as I walk down the stairs, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a sick bag. Reaching the bottom I am surprised to find a small bus waiting to take the passengers to the plane, they don't show these in films. I cautiously board and the doors suddenly shut behind me, I jump out of shock and a man in a navy suit quietly muffles a laugh. I can feel my face turning red out of embracement and anger at his callous attitude. My stomach churns and my heart goes cold when the possibility of my father being like this crosses my mind. I swiftly force it away, I'll have time to think on it later, but now I have to get away from that man. I scan this decrepit bus, but to no relief the only hand hold left is by the wretched man. I cannot help relate this to all of the books I have read in the past; where the writer foreshadows events of great evil or sadness with small moments like this; but I remind myself that this is reality, we don't get warnings. I know that for sure.

I am sent back to reality with a sudden jerk of the bus, only to find that I have missed us even setting off. I make my way through the jostling arms. When I finally make it out of the jungle of people I cannot help but curse my height, being born premature left me smaller than the rest of my class. As I look in front of me I am hardly surprised to find a small white plane waiting for us, I'm at an airport of course there are going to be planes. This plane though, gets the delightful experience of my glare, and possibly my breakfast if my stomach does not settle down. I drag my feet across the tarmac toward the evil stairs of doom, as I am now dubbing them. I climb the steps too quickly up and nearly fall flat on my face, perfect. I glance behind me praying that the man had not seen, but judging by the smirk across his face I am going to become the hilarious subject of the pompous dinner parties that he most likely attends. I scowl at him and envision punching him in the face, but apparently I am still unable to give a good glare and all I end up doing is making him laugh more. Yep life is perfect. I pick myself up brushing off the slightly painful indents of the steps on my hand. Another air-hostess, who bears a scarily good resemblance to the woman before escorts me to my seat with a smile which I'm sure, is meant to be reassuring. She tells me that the plane will be taking off shortly, in a manner that I cannot help but think is patronising – but then again perhaps I'm just being a bit cynical at the moment. She continues to tell me that once we are in the air, refreshments will be sold, and I cannot help but be thankful that I convinced Aunt Jane and Mum – mainly Aunt Jane surprisingly – not to make me have an escort. A few minutes later the air-hostess gives a safety announcement in a couple of different languages, which is a little confusing since we are going to America from England and I'm pretty sure we speak the same language. I fasten my seat belt up as she instructs us to, again I begin to wonder who actually needs instructions for this. The rest of the announcement was a bore, but I listened anyway as she drones on; she then informs us that we can listen to music by plugging head phones into the arm rest, but she then tells us that we can only listen to music after we are in the air, and once again reminds us all to switch off all out mobile devices as they can interfere with the plane or something, I wasn't really listening, but I did switch my phone to aeroplane mode…because they have that now Ms Flight Attendant who is giving me suspicious looks, seriously people these days so untrusting – but then again I was smiling at her quite coyly, okay that's a lie I was full out grinning at her, but who cares it was fun.

Half an hour later we were soaring through the sky above the clouds, with the blue sea beneath us. Every so often there was a little bit of turbulence but the air-hostess - or was it flight attendant, I cannot even begin to remember which one was politically correct these days - assured us all that we are safe and that the only reason we felt it is because we are flying in a small plane, which then leads me to question why we are on a small plane, surely more people travel to America than this. As time passes I start to notice little ships in the sea, and the memory of me playing battleship with my friends when I was younger gets brought to mind - Mum preferred me to play with dolls but they got tedious after a while. Another thing to cross my mind is the fact that we are getting further and further away from my home and closer to America, and therefore my new future. Thinking of what my future now holds causes my mind draws a blank, but, the childish fear nags at the back of my mind that my father won't like me, and I hope that it won't be true; and that he'll accept me for who I am, not the child he never knew existed which - luckily for him - has now been dumped on him with very little warning. I took a crash course on American culture before I left, which pretty much means I watched all the American films I could get my hands on, let's just say I hope high school, not secondary school as I soon found out, won't be like it's depicted in the films with all the cliques and stuff. If I have learnt one thing from my intensive internet search is that the academic year begins in August not September like it does in the UK, now the problem may not be very obvious but when you are going to another country, which thankfully speaks the same language as you do, but has a entirely different schooling system which confuses you to no end because it varies in different states and in England it's simple because the government regulates the entire thing and it hasn't changed in decades, it's good to start at beginning of the academic year or even after a school holiday, but no I'm starting slap bang in the middle of term and I'm freaking out. Oh and never mind the fact that I'm just about to meet my father. My life is just too bloody perfect.

I'm brought out of my internal monologue as we hit another round of turbulence, but this time I'm pretty sure my stomach isn't going to be able to handle it, I reach for the sick bag positioned conveniently in front of me, and well I don't think anybody needs a running commentary on that.

Once I'm pretty sure my stomach is empty I rinse my mouth with the water that the - who I have now decided is a very nice - air-hostess gave me sometime during my little bonding session with a paper bag, much to the distain of Mr. Snotty Suit Guy. Did I mention I was sitting next to him? No? Well he's been glaring at me for the last few hours now, and I'm wondering if I should get up and go to the bathroom just so he has to move out of my way, that'll infuriate him. I like that word 'infuriate' sound kinda posh, forget irritate or annoy infuriate just paints that lovely picture of someone face flushing with anger and then steam sprouting from their ears as they try to rein it all it, I wonder if that would happen to Mr. Suit, probably not, would be entertaining, a hit on YouTube, better not though because if for some god awful reason this plane goes down I don't want to give him a reason to push me out. I release a sigh as I sink down into the chair, perhaps I can pass these next few hours sleeping. Settling on that idea I turn away from Mr. Suit to face the window as I focus on the clouds trickling by below me, I really don't want his face scaring my mind as I sleep, I'd probably have nightmares for the rest of my life.

I have been watching my suitcase go round and round the conveyer belt for a couple of minutes now but I can't bring myself to pull it off, because pulling it off means I am one step closer to meeting someone who did not even know of my existence till a few months ago. I decide to let it circle a few times more just to pass the time. As I stare at it I can't help but reminisce about the time we bought that case I was eleven a Doctor Who fanatic who somehow managed to link everything with the show, and sure enough there was my lone - though extremely large - suitcase travailing on the conveyer belt, the closest colour to TARDIS blue. After five extremely long minutes I know that I have to pick it up and meet my father. It takes shorter than I thought to reach the exit, but the problem for me is walking through the doors. I use the breathing exercise Mum taught me - which share a scary resemblance to the ones of Sharpay Evans - to try and relax, I walk through the door and there he is waiting for me with one of those stupid signs in his scruffy writing.

"Alexandria?" he asks, in a voice which I've only ever heard muffled from the brief and positively awkward phone conversations we've held. I can see immediately the similarities in our appearances; we both have the same mossy brown hair and hazel eyes, though mine seem slightly browner, that's from Mum, and I have to admit that I'm curious about where the similarities end, curiosity killed the cat Mum always said. I've never really liked cats. After a few minutes of just standing there I realise I still haven't spoken. As I start to speak my mouth becomes ridiculously dry, and refuses to form words, so in the end I just nod, and give what I hope is a smile.

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**I hope you liked the first chapter and I would love to hear your feedback, updates will be a bit irregular at the moment as I have a lot of exams coming up, but I will try to update at least once a week. I am looking for a Beta who can hopefully bug me to keep writing and get these chapters out whilst making sure the story is realistic, so if anyone is interested or can recommend someone I would be very grateful.**

**IsobelFrances** (Red Pigeon)


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